Ball Joint Gimbal Mirror
coarse sensor pointing
The Ball Joint Gimbal Mirror steers the laser beam toward the area of interest. Compared to the fine steering mirror, it has a greater range of motion, moves slower, and increments at a larger resolution. |
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Texel Camera
high resolution color imagery
A co-boresighted color camera takes high-resolution CMOS digital images of the scene. The pixels of the image are precisely aligned with the ladar shots. This results in on-the-fly generation of three-dimensional color images composed of texels. |
Telescope Receiver
collects reflecting photons
The laser pulse is reflected off of the target, collected in a telescope and focused on a photodiode detector. The detector converts the pulse to an electronic signal that is digitized and stored. The full waveform of the signal is collected, enabling experimentation with a variety of techniques for accurately measuring the range to target. 
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| Laser Transmitter
sends photons to the target
Laser pulses are emitted 10,000 to 100,000 times per second by a laser head. The photons in each pulse are bounced off of the target and returned to the telescope receiver for detection and measurement. |
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| Fine Steering Mirror
fine raster scanning
The Fine Steering Mirror (FSM) scans the laser energy in a raster pattern, which is then steered by the Ball Joint Gimbal Mirror. The FSM has a small range of motion, but can move quickly and accurately. |

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